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Believe the hype and get yourself to Mars.

Way back in 2005, a little game called Mercenaries came out. At that point, and pretty much every other point until I played Red Faction: Guerrilla, I never thought anyone could outdo the sheer joyous destruction opera that Pandemic laid out four years ago. Volition does just that and even elevates the concept a generation further.

To put this in perspective, the feeling I got when playing Red Faction: Guerrilla hearkened back to the monochrome days: to Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Pong. It was the sort of realization that comes with the fact every single thing in the playground set down by the developers could be interacted with. With no discernable walls that couldn't be broken, paths that couldn't be taken, or tactics that couldn't be used, the sandbox environment in the game serves far more to compliment the epic scale of the action in the campaign than exploration. And therein lies the rub. I can see quite a few people going into this game expecting Saint's Row 3: In Space with a 30 hour length and a severe amount of exploration and discovery. Now don't get me wrong: the Martian surface is done extremely well. It feels like a mining colony and the surrounding territory would, and the spacing of elements on the landscape feel organic and natural for the scene.

As good as the single player campaign is, the multiplayer and wrecking crew modes make the game shine. With multiplayer, the game progresses through different modes to unlock (the usual suspects: deathmatch, point defense, capture the flag, big team battles) as experience is earned online. While pretty typical in its setup, the variety of weapons and power-ups (in the form of rechargeable backpacks) takes it over the edge. Different strategies emerge with combinations of the two; popular ones seen as of publication being combining stealth with the sledgehammer, the knockdown of the rhino backpack with the finisher of a shotgun, and the jetpack and a sniper rifle. Given that some of the weaponry gives players the ability to shoot through walls, set traps, or even erupt a black hole, it's hard not to find some sort of satisfaction in the over-the-top nature of the armament thrown down.

On the other multiplayer segment, Wrecking Crew, the goal is to cause as much destruction within a certain time limit. It's set up much like the party mode of Burnout wherein causing spectacular crashes and chain reactions yields a far higher score in the end. As well, it goes by a turn-based system, with only one controller necessary to play. Even though wanton destruction on its own merits is a draw upon itself, the simple, straightforward, and showy nature of Wrecking Crew makes for a fun distraction that pretty much anyone can enjoy.

Also missing are any sort of level creation or modification tools. With huge fan support for the mod community in the other two games in the series, as well as strong demand for them, it's disappointing to see them absent in Guerrilla. Although understandable due to the physics system, it still would have been nice to see.

Regardless of those shortcomings, Red Faction: Guerrilla is an essential game to play if only to see Volition's exemplary game design in action. Failing that, the sheer amount of fun derived from taking on an entire military yourself with some of the most over the top weaponry ever to find itself into a game should seal the deal.